Shock! Horror! Last post of 2010...

So, I would like to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Even though its 6 hours away in Sydney...

This year, wow, its gone fast hasn't it? I never would have thought in January, when I was stuck at home in the snow, with no heating as I couldn't get to work - that I would end this year in Sydney. Just goes to show that anything can happen I guess...

This has been a weird year I think. I started a new and exciting job, then decided I was going traveling, then had my heart broken, then went traveling, had the best time in South America, met the most amazing people, got over it and flew to Sydney, where I shall end this weird year and start the most amazing year! That's the dream.

But obviously this year got significantly better and I have an idea of where I might be going when I get back home...we shall see.

So theres the reminiscing for 2010. Looking forward to 2011 - have a good feeling about it. Despite being homeless and jobless when I get back - I think it will be a great chance for lots of new things!

Here's a picture of a chrismassy Llama, don't say I never give you anything.

Anyways, so Sydneys treating me fine. Went to Manly yesterday for the beach and a bbq at a friends house, which was awesome!! And tonight I am going with Dee, Sheila and Michael to a bar near the harbour to see the fireworks, drinks, food etc. Should be a wicked night.

Anyways, best wishes and all that jazz to everyone and Happy New Year, when it comes around to where you are.

Missing you all as ever, muchos love xxxx

Crazy Chris's Christmas...

 

This is Chris, observing the drinking games from the corner of the room.

...ok, so I have to tell you guys about this crazy guy thats sharing a room with us. He's called chris, 25 from Florida and is a mechanic engineer. He also says things like:

Did you know that the perfect bottle of water whould be around PH7 which is neutral.

They've done studies to show that women who only show 30% of their body are more likely to find someone.

Have you been eating lettuce? Because lettuce contains vitamin K which stops you from bruising.

If you mix zinc in your drink you wont need to pee.

This bottle of wine lasts 3 days as you only drink 2 units a day, thats the recommended allowance.

Do British girls shave their legs? Because yours has fuzz on them (to Danielle).

I hate Italians.

I didn't have a good night. It was full of muslims and lebonese.

And so on. He also has a printed spreadsheet of his 5 year plan which includes:

Finding a wife and getting married.

Having 4 children.

Being rich and successful - earning around 42k.

Building up the body mass as least 0.5%.

Obtaining charisma - oh no, wait, he's already got that.

He's such a strange guy and comes out with random facts about vitamins, statistics and women ovulating. I am a little bit scared that I will wake up and see him staring at me. Or him killing me. Its totally possible. He ziplocks everything he owns and brought his own christmas penguin themed kitchen roll. hmm....

anyways, I dont want to sound too bitchy, but he is a nutter who creeps us all out and is actually really rude to us and totally  narrow minded and racist towards everyone who isn't Australian.

So, apart from crazy Chris, I've actually been having an awesome time in Sydney. Christmas day was beautiful, so hot and sunny. I met up with Dee and Heidi and we went for  Christmas swim (better than our last near drowning attempt) sunbathing and having a bbq. How can it get better than that?!? I also discovered that Christmas in Kent was not a white one, which makes me feel a bit better :)

And I got to speak to the whole family and hear them opening their presents...which was nice to hear them all, bit jealous of the presents though ;)

So now Sydneys been a bit wet, we got lucky for Christmas. Its cloudy alot of the time and still warm, but wet. Damn. Should've stayed in BA.

Apart from my jetlagged days, I have been out pretty much every night since my arrival, so no stopping from BA....although I have actually managed to catch up on my sleep a bit more, I dont feel like the living dead.

Today I walked through China town to Darling Harbour, went to the Maritime Museum which was actually really interesting with a shark exhibition and about the children from the uk in the 19th centuary who were shipped over to oz against their will. Then I walked over the sydney harbour bridge and got some beautiful panoramic shots of the harbour.

Beautiful huh?

And I am a very lucky girl, as I have been talking to my great uncle Patrick and he's flying me out to Tazmania next week for a visit, to meet family that I've never met before. Am really looking forward to it.

I also have realised that Australia is a super expensive country. You actually can spend 100 quid on nothing. I bought a train ticket, some food and a few drinks and thats literally about it. And that is still me living off noodles and salad. Insane.

Anyways, think me and the girls are gonna do the Sydney Tower tomorrow and the botanical gardens, as i dont think it'll be another beach day. Damn. I will also buy baked beans tomorrow, actually been craving them for months now. Can't wait. It really is the simple things...

He's a complimentary shot of me in Sydney...

Enjoy. Muchos love as ever xxxx

Merry Christmas from Sydney!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! I MISS AND LOVE YOU ALL LOTS!!!

ok, so my christmas has started well - champagne breakfast to follow a hectic, christmas themed night out in Sydney. This has gotten much better, especially as my first few days in sydney was pretty bad. I was put in a room of 7 english 'lads on tour' and it was actually worse than 'that night' in the salt flats. Thats saying something!!

I literally lost days of my life - travelling, the date line and bad jet lag meant that i just wanted to sleep, instead at 4pm, i was woken up by the 7 horribly drunk guys, walking around totally naked, jumping on me whilst i was in bed and trying to take my covers off me. This i could tolerate, to a point. then we had a party in my room with around 30 other people i had never met, whilst i was still in bed. still tolerating.

The final straw was when one of the guys trying to kick the door in as he forgot his key, and brought a girl back, demanding that she get naked. then i left and demanded to change rooms. which has actually worked out much better, as the people in my room are much nicer and more my kind of people. We even make dens in our beds when we get back from a drunken night out and sing christmas carols. Everything works out in the end.

So i actually havent seen much of Sydney yet, met Dee and Heidi yesterday who I met in Argentina and spending christmas day with them on Coogee Bay Beach for a bbq, which will be awesome as the weather is beautiful today!

Am gutted to be missing a white christmas and missing making mince pies and mulled wine with mum, and decorating dads tree. next year.

So anyways, I'm off to the beach - dont be too cold back at home!! haha!!

miss you all tons and sorry i'm not there with you guys. muchos muchos muchos love always and forever xxxx

One hell of a christmas catch up...

Okay, so Laura, you were right, sorry I actually haven't written anything in like forever. So this is gonna be a long one... (just as well you're on christmas hols by now!)

And apologies if its just not interesting. I lost days of my life this week travelling and am still quite jetlagged.

so...argentina....we went to mendoza for wines tours on bikes, courtesy of Mr Hugo, the nicest old man I've ever met- I could hug him forever!

(Ali - def get the Empress 10 bus from Mendoza bus station to the wineries, its like 1.80 pesos and easy to get to. confirm the route number at the info desk, they speak english and DO go to the olive and choc place, its awesome.)

We had a lot of fun in Mendoza, bbq, lots of drinking, Rach actually getting up the next day to do the wineries with me again! and Laura getting quite drunk and demanding Pink from the dj. awesome.

After a few days of this we got on yet another bus to Bariloche, the lake district of argentina. Absolutely beautiful. We stayed in Hostel Inn - highly recommended- with a view of the lake and snow topped mountains. And they specialise in chocolate, so i spent a lot of time in the cafes trying it all out. And we saw Sarah and Macca again! which was a surprise as we were sure they'd have left. Me and rach cycled the circuito chico, and did all the beaches and the swiss village for chocolate cake -we are professional cyclists of course. so in the end, it was like a killer 36km cycle, but on the most beautiful day. We attempted a swim in the lakes, i got up to my waist but then thought that my legs would fall off from the cold. And we saw one of National Geographics top rated panaramic views in the world, and did a bit of tobogganing, where i burnt my hand. I also had the most comfiest bed ever here. :)

So after Bariloche, we hit Puerto Madryn for a bit of whale watching, and not much else. Me and rach befriended 2 other english guys, Michael and Ian, to hire a car to do the Peninsula, where you can see penguinos, seals and whales. It was a rush of a day as you cant drive fast as the roads are all gravel, so you can easily flip over. But we saw the penguins and the seals, before heading back to try and get on the last boat of the day to do the whale watching. I think we got very lucky, as we were running a bit late and managed to catch them before they went out. Which was totally worth it. The whales are sooo huge, and they're all mothers and calves. There were so many of them, so graceful and they come really close to the boat. You can feel the whole boat rock when they swim underneath. But theres basically not much else to do once you've done that, so onto BA!

We were there for the weekend before we went to Uruguay for the beaches. We saw Dee, Laura, Sarah and Macca again, reunited! We went to the worst club on the saturday night, Crobar - but the highlights definitely were Maccas dancing and sitting on the dancefloor to do his show, and Rach's speedy moves ;) and Dees level of general drunkeness!

Amazingly, after a shit night and a bit hungover, we all met to do the San Telmo markets, which was cool and had the best sushi lunch. Yum Yum Yum (as Rach would say!)

Monday morning we went to Uruguay for a week of beaches, as you do need a good holiday when you're travelling. We went to La Pedrera which was super small and quiet but had a beautiful beach. Unfortunately, this is where i got the worst sunburn ever, as the wind makes it deceptively cooler. classic mistake. Then we hit La Paloma, which i didnt rate and then we lost Dee as she had to go to Chile. We finally arrived in Punto Del Diablo as its better than Punte del Este ;) - which was worth the wait. Its such a cool little hippy town full of locals and backpackers, just chilling out on beautiful beaches. So we spent a few sangria and twister fueled days here. But i also lost my favourite jumper here, which was devastating to me at the time as i got it at the last FFAF gig with the last original line up and the whole of casually dressed..from front to back. but i guess it makes my awful awful backpack lighter. You learn quickly to hate your backpack.

anyways, after this it was back to BA (for anyone who is unaware of travelling terms, its Buenos Aires) for my final week in south america :(

it also turned out to be the best week of my entire trip.

I absolutely LOVED BA!!! its actually the best city after London. One week isn't enough! We went out every night and were out everyday and still i didnt get to see or do everything i wanted.insane. we went to:

La Boca - multicoloured houses

La  Paloma - street art and boutique shops (like east london)

Recoletta - famous and most interesting cemetery and fuerza bruta - more of that later!

Tango show, la bomba drum show, the best night out at Pacha, the worst night out in kika ( me and ali actually got mauled by Argentinian guys and had to be saved by aussies in vests) and a cool drum'n'bass night at Bahriem. I literally didn't sleep for the first few days, hardly saw my bed for partying so much and only had breakfast the first and last day. So. Much. Fun.

Fuerza Bruta - the BEST show i have ever ever seen! me and ali loved it so much that we saw it again the next night. Its like a club/interactive dance/light/water show. With flying boxes, confetti, girls dancing in a water tank suspended just above your head, a treadmill and being hit with stuff and getting quite wet. Doesnt make sense does it? cos you NEED to see it. thats really all i can tell you about that.

So basically, i ended my south america trip on a massive high, its been truely awesome. ive met the best people and made the best of friends and actually cried my eyes out when i left. bit awkward for the two boys i never met sitting next to me in the taxi.

so this is the part that is a bit soppy and lame...so please bear with me.

I would like to thank these guys for making my trip what it was:

Mark - thank you so much for taking care of me when i was so ill in cuzco, you're a star and im sorry i couldnt catch you up! i'll be seeing your awesome bar soon though!

Sarah - I LOVE it that you argued about 10p! And thank you so much for your endless spanish, i know it wasnt always easy for you and we all really appreciate it. and i had so much fun dancing to Ga Ga with you in an old church in a cemetary club...random!! See you at the wedding love - keep me updated!

Macca Pacca!! aka - Rebecca. You put up with alot of girly chat over the last couple of months. but im not sorry about that! you can be the most awkward person at times, which i absolutely love! i know we're not supposed to find you funny, but i cant help it! see you in march!

Laura - im so glad you're not going back to your job, you've made the best decision. enjoy the family, they mean so much to you. and ive had the best time with you - thanks for picking me up in uyuni and cleaning the kitchen!! and of course trying to explain who Pink is in spanish!!

Ali - I only knew you a week but it feels like we've been friends forever!! i miss you already! you need to come to london, you'd fit right in! And i love it that you hate paul!! have a wicked time in new york and maybe see u in Melbourne some time??

Dee - Sydney awaits!! cant wait to see you for lunch today, its been ages since we hung out!! and by the beach...mega jealous. lets get drunk and enjoy christmas! muchos love.

Ant - I had such a great time hanging out with you, even if you are a bit rowdy and you (or someone else!) kicks us out. Enjoy your time here, it wont be long till we're partying it up in Mckluskys.

Tom - should've hungout in the salt flats - but i guess you and ben were busy spooning tom! ive had the best week with you and am also a bit gutted. have a wicked time and i'll see you in the summer x

Rach - my Racheroo. How could i have done all of these things without you? I can't believe its come to an end and we were the last ones standing, as ever!! I love you so much - acutally devastated to have left you. But have a great time, enjoy Rio - the time of your life!!!

So that is that for south america. Me and ben got the plane together - where we werent sitting together so i missed the 19 hours of his face. but half our plane seemed to be people we'd met along the way. Everyday was a challenge and a surprise, better than expected but completely unexpecting. The best time of my life was in south america, but am looking forward to the rest of the trip.

So, its christmas eve over here now, with mariah carey playing on repeat it seems. Im off to meet Dee for lunch and makes some christmas plans, as its not sunny, booo!!!

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!! I love and miss you all, and gutted to miss my first white christmas at home. Typical huh? muchos muchos muchos loves xxxxxxxxx

The truths about travelling...

1. The Lonely Planet is known as the Lonely Liar.

2. Whenever there is a group of international people and alcohol, you always talk about world history, politics and the future.

3. Your feet are never clean (except in a shower, and then that depends...)

4. You get called a gringo nearly everyday, by someone.

5. As a gringo, you call your small backpack, your daypack.

6. Socks and flip-flops are acceptable.

7. Everyone is on the same trail in either direction and you will bump into them again.

8. You either have time or money but rarely both.

9. For every few weeks of great travelling, comes a full day of utter hell.
10. You end up wearing the same outfit for days.

11. Handwashing in the shower saves time and money.

12. You forget what day it is, almost everyday.

13. Pictures and words don´t capture how amazing something is. Only     experiencing it does.

14. You can wear your pj bottoms in the street and people dont look twice, as a gringo.

15. Bottled water is a way of life.

16. You can do 12 hours on a bus standing on your head. (not literally).

17. Two-tiar pricing sucks.

18. Street food is awesome.

19. Spanish is very different in every country you visit.

20. The travelbug never goes away. (i hope). 

Clubbing in a church and the fall.

Hola chicos!

So crazy times were had in salta. I purchased a beautiful cropped flamingo tshirt, which i felt guilty about buying but absolutley love it!

And after our free chilli at the hostel, i wore this top to the club we went to afters, which was an old church in a cementry. and the shots over here are muy peligroso, because you have no idea how much you are drinking!! especially when everyone wants to buy you drinks..

...basically the story goes like this - alot of alochol, lots of dancing, me and sarah running around chatting to the djs making them lady gaga, rachel disappearing and meeting the pretty boy.

twas a good, very drunken and silly night! basically the pretty boy was very pretty but was from southampton and works in formula 1, not a surfer...still quite a cool job though. so everyone had lots of drunken fun at the club and after ;)

we woke up half an hour before check out time, all still majorly drunk, chucked on some clothes and packed and then we squeezed into a taxi to have the  best mcdonalds you´ve ever tasted!

and i saw the pretty boy again back at the hostel before we left..but it was all cool.

so then we left sarah and macca :( and me rach and laura headed to iguazu for the most spectaular waterfalls you´ve ever seen! it was a loong journey, 23 hours on the bus. but you get as many crackers and choccie biscuits as you can eat plus some food and alcohol..which i did not want in the state i was in!

iguazu the town is pretty small with not much going on, but the hostal was nice, with a warm pool and outside kitchen. we went to the falls the nexy day - it really needs an entire day to explore just the argentinian side, as you can also view it from brasil for the day. the park itself is beautiful, its quite a tropical climate so lots of jungely type flora and fauna, with lots of colourful butterflies, possums and huge lizards running around! there are big jungle cats and lots of other animals, but you have to be very lucky to see them.

the falls itself, is huge. 29 waterfalls make up iguazu and 36 olympic swimming pools a second gets chucked down.  there are 2 main parts, the devils mouth and the rest really. the devils mouth is quite scary as viewing it from below and above, you cant see the otherside as theres so much water and spray around, it looks like its constantly in a huge cloud of fog. me and laura got on the 12 minute boat ride for a stupid price, but was well worth it as 12 mins is all you need! you zoom around the falls in this tiny little boat, you dont even get under it as its too dangerous, but you get soo wet, its like having bucket after bucket of water thrown over you. i went in my bikini which sounds silly, but was a wise choice as if you´re not prepared, youll be soaked down to your pants!

it was an incredible experience though, a must do if any one ever goes there! after drying off a bit, we met rach who went on a seperate trip, and walked the lower and then the upper trails to see the falls from all sides, before getting the train to the devils mouth. 

a picture may say a thousand words, but word cannot say how amazing this place is. the photos just wont do it justice, you just have to go there. a famous saying from an american presidant who visited is, ¨poor niagra¨. and i agree.

we spent the whole day there, and waited until dusk as you see the falls in a whole new light and its far less busy. the next day we spent by the pool as it was sooo hot and we needed another day before another long night bus.

so that was a couple of days ago and now we´re in rosario, birthplace of che , not thatd youd know it, theres not much to do with him here. but its a pretty city and not many tourists which is a nice break. we went down to the port today and got bombarded by a whole class of kids from santa fe, on a day trip and had our pictures taken with them and they tried to speak english with us which was cute.

the argentinian spanish is super hard to understand, which is a shame as i feel like my spanish is getting better. they had different spanish words and a really different pronounciation which makes everything very alien!

so tomorrow we´re off to Mendoza, the wine regions where you can go wine tasting on a bike. also hoping to meet sarah and macca again, if you´re reading thism STAY THERE!!

and harry potter is out in argentina tomorrow, SUPER EXCITED!!!

anyways, dont be a stranger, keep in touch and miss you all.

thinking of you always han, best of luck and ciao to everyone else!! xxxxx

Cabellos y camas de plasticos...

So, sleeping on a plastic coated mattress is a bit like sleeping on a slip ´n´ slide, until the sheet falls off then its like sleeping on a leather sofa with bare skin. Basically, we spent two nights in Tupiza, south Bolivia, in a nice and not expensive hotel with a pool and buffett breakfast. But got kicked out as the guy at the desk didnt like us and said they were full this weekend because of the big parties going on in town. Ugh.

Anyways, so a bit of a catch up. We did the salt tour from uyuni to san pedro de atacama in chile. I met some lovely english people (which seems rare here!) and am still with them now. The salt tour was cool, the salt flats were weird and hard and sharp on the belly but good for taking funny pics, see here:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=453975029170&set=a.453970099170.248816.507919170#!/album.php?aid=248816&id=507919170

 Unfortunately, we also bumped into the lads on tour from la paz - see previous posts. they spent the whole 3 days drinking and being hungover...but they seem like nice kids. and they had funny pics of the jumping around the salt plains naked. yes, actually naked.

the older boys in the other jeep travelling with us took a lot of san pedro the one night i had to share a room with them. needless to say, no one got any sleep, as the big irish guy completely flipped out and tried to fight everyone and was in tears for hours. we had to get up at 4.30am to go see the geysers which no one was happy about fter being so tired, and that night was the coldest night of my life!! so that was entertaining. (san pedro is a hallucinagenic drug from a cactus, used by shamans to find their enlightenment)

the car was so cold that morning, we drove through the desert with ice all over the windscreen. but the hot sprigs before breakfast ws amazing, the bath ive been waiting for!! although getting out had to be a super quick affair! and then we headed off to chile, with lots of kings of leon and great driving tunes for the way!

sand pedro de atacama was super expensive, 12.50 quid a night instead of our usual 3. eek! but its a nice little town and its really hot as its lower down in the desert. so we stayed a few days, chilled by the pool and went to a halloween party in the desert! it was good as we chatted to some local girls who told us to go to the same party as them, as there was another one but theres would be better. which ended up being right! we had to wait for cars to drive past and 15 of us bundled into the trailer of a truck to get to the party, but is was free and only 5km away. the party was awesome! a shed in the middle of the desert, with party lights, a bar and a bonfire with lots of music and locals. it was good as there wasnt many gringos there, theyd all gone to the other party. we spent the night drinking and dancing with the locals, who went manic when they popular spanish songs came on, and they taught us to dance! it was super friendly but like 1 degrees!! but the night sky was gorgeous..so many stars...so much fun!

then when it ended, we started to walk back as there were no taxis, but a nice chilean couple picked us up and dropped us in town - which would never happen in london! so we arrived  at the hostal just before the sun rose.

the next day was a right off as we were all so tired! the next day we left for salta, argentina, with the intention of coming back up to Tupiza in Bolivia for a week of more cheapness and stock up on toiletries etc. you wouldnt believe how much cheaper Bolivia is! we did this plan, so were travelling for well over 24 hours, and encountered a 3 hour wait at the argentinian border as they wanted to charge the english people to leave the country, crazy and illegal. then the whole system went down. only in south america.

but all was well and we were on our 1 quid bus to Tupiza. this is where you pay for quality, quite clearly. they said it would 2 hours, which surprised us as its supposed to be longer, but they were true to their word. i just thought we would lose our lives in the mean time. my bum was in the air more than on the seat. it was like a rollercoaster, except you werent sure if you would roll over a cliff or not. it seemed likely when we saw a bus that had done just that.

but we survived! and we´re back in bolivia and stocking up at the markets and eating cheap, delicious food! yesterday we went on a 3 hour horseride through the wild west, cactus´s red mountains through the hot desert! and ive bought a beautiful traditional bolivian hat for the sun, and most likely for weddings in the future! its quite grand!

my horse was beautiful and really placid, so it was a really nice experience. i got a bit dressed up for the trip as well, with my nails done, jewellery, co-ordinating clothes and my beautiful new hat. it was the first time this year that i actually felt really good about myself, after all the ups and downs. i felt like a proper, beautiful lady! and im so glad im here and not in the uk (sorry but i think its better here!), with the cold wet weather, no jobs and the mundaness of everyday life. everyday is exciting here, even if you´re not doing anything particular, you meet new people, eat new food, see new things and when things get dull, you just move on. itd like to be able to do this when i get home...i get bored too quickly and i dont feel like being tied down anymore!!

so for the rest of the weekend, its a big fiesta, celebrating the bicentuary of a big battle between bolivia, peru and argentina and the outcome was these countries independence, so its massive here. the joys of travelling, falling into lots of fun things! and ive been learning more correct spanish, as sarah who im with at the mo, is a spanish teacher. so i might actually get good!!

so im off to eat many delicious foods of the stalls in the square, in the hot sun and then going to party!

i hope you all had a good halloween (guys the pics look awesome, u know who u are!!) and a 

VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAMES AND LAURA! 

sorry im not there, but im sure ur having a wicked time and i miss you guys tons!!!

off to salta, argentina on monday, maybe hungover! keep me updated on the uk yes?

thanks for listening.

love to all xxxxxx